BANNER — Jessica Porter, left, clinical manager of Trinity Medical Center West’s Intensive Care Unit, and Shasta Cunningham, the widow of organ donor and former Mingo Junction resident Mike Cunningham, held the flag that will fly on the Trinity West campus through April for National Donate Life Month. — Christopher Dacanay
STEUBENVILLE — Emblazoned with the words “Donate Life,” a flag will wave on Trinity Medical Center West’s campus through April, encouraging community members to impact and potentially save others’ lives through organ donation.
Trinity staff held a flag raising ceremony Tuesday to commemorate National Donate Life Month, which seeks to educate the public on organ, cornea and tissue donation and honor individuals who’ve given the gift of life. This week, Trinity West’s main lobby is hosting a quilt that memorializes 30 different donors, including one from Mingo Junction.
Present for the ceremony was Faith Hilterbrand, who represents Lifeline of Ohio, an independent nonprofit organization that promotes and coordinates the donation of human organs and tissue for transplantation. Lifeline of Ohio’s director of external partner relations, Hilterbrand spoke on the “Donate Life” flag’s significance.
“This flag symbolizes so many important themes: Life, loss, healing and hope. This flag flies in honor of the thousands of donor-heroes and their families who said yes to donation,” she said. “It flies in celebration of more than 1 million recipients who have received organ, eye and tissue transplants. And it flies to give hope to the nearly 3,000 people across the state of Ohio and more than 100,000 people across the country who are still waiting for their life saving gifts.”
In 2024, 169 people in Lifeline of Ohio’s Central and Southeastern Ohio service area shared the gift of life through organ donation, Hilterbrand said, and those gifts saved 68 lives. Trinity’s team cared for three of those donors, who saved six lives.
Additionally, 549 tissue donors and 568 cornea donors in that service area helped provide healing for thousands of individuals, Hilterbrand said, adding that Trinity cared for 12 tissue donors and 19 cornea donors.
“Behind all of those numbers are generous donors with their own life stories, stories that can now continue through the lives of many grateful recipients,” Hilterbrand said, telling Trinity staff: “I’d like to thank you for your compassionate care of all your donors and their families, for honoring the legacies of those who chose to say yes to donation and for sharing our belief in the life-saving and healing power of donation.”
The founder of Donate Life Month in 2003, Donate Life America says “deceased donation” is the process of giving certain body parts at the time of the donor’s death for transplantation into another person or persons whose corresponding organ has failed. Deceased donation can only occur after the donor’s death — either by cardiac or brain death — has been declared by medical professionals outside of the donation and transplant process.
Hospital staff contact an organ procurement organization, which checks the patient’s donor registry. If the person is registered, the OPO informs the family, and if not, then it gives next of kin or legally authorized representatives the opportunity to authorize donation. After that, the recovery process may begin.
“For all organ, eye and tissue donation, the donor is treated with care and respect, and the donor family is supported throughout the donation process,” Donate Life America says on its website. “There is no cost to the donor’s family or estate for donation. Donation can provide solace to a grieving family.”
Donate Life America says the list of organs and tissues that can be successfully transplanted continues to grow, but the current list of organs includes the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, intestines and pancreas, as well as tissues like the eyes/corneas, heart valves, bone and associate tissue, skin, veins and arteries, nerve tissue and birth tissue.
A person whose organ has failed may be evaluated for a potential transplant and placed on a national waiting list, which is very long and sometimes sees patients die before they can receive a transplant, Donate Life America says, adding that donors of all ages are needed.
A national system matches available organs from donors to individuals on the waiting list, taking into account blood type, body size, donor distance, tissue type and the patient’s health and time spent on the list.
Jessica Porter serves as clinical manager of Trinity West’s Intensive Care Unit and organ donation liaison. She said Trinity celebrates Donate Life Month every year, taking time to recognize some “local heroes.”
“It’s an honor to be able to honor them and their families for making that ultimate sacrifice and making the decision to be donors,” she said.
“It’s important for families as well as others to know what their family members’ wishes are, because one organ donor can save up to eight lives, one tissue donor can save up to 75 lives. A cornea donation can restore the sight for two people. So, it is extremely important to know the impact that they would have on others.”
On Friday, Porter will be stationed in Trinity West’s lobby, along with refreshments, to teach interested individuals about organ donation and how to become a donor.
April Lopez, a donation program coordinator for Lifeline of Ohio who supports Trinity Health System, said her organization has 13 memorial quilts honoring donors with personalized squares made by loved ones. The one temporarily displayed in Trinity West’s lobby is the largest of the quilts.
Seeing that specific quilt for the first time Tuesday was Shasta Cunningham, whose late husband Mike is immortalized among his fellow donors.
“It’s emotional to me,” Cunningham said of the ceremony. “I was very honored that they invited me. … Being part of something involving Lifeline of Ohio and involving my husband is a dream for me.”
Mike Cunningham, who lived in Mingo Junction with his wife and two children, was the “biggest Big Red fan you would ever find in your entire life,” Shasta Cunningham recalled. He frequently attended football and baseball games and would often lead the crowd in chants.
Almost six years ago, Mike Cunningham suffered a heart attack, the week after his son’s graduation party. In spite of Trinity staff’s efforts to save him, he died at the age of 41.
Mike Cunningham had chosen to be an organ donor, to his wife’s initial dismay, so his family received a call the night of his death regarding recovery. Although his organs could not be donated, his tissues and corneas were recovered, with the latter being taken to Europe for transplants. His ribs were given to the Ohio State University and used to test child car seats, Shasta Cunningham said.
It was the right decision, she added, recalling her husband’s selflessness. He was an amazing man and was able to help people even after his death.
Shasta Cunningham has become a major proponent for Lifeline of Ohio, which provided her with after-care. She and her family travel to Columbus each year for the organization’s Dash for Donation event, participating in remembrance of Mike Cunningham. They also visit Lifeline of Ohio’s donor memorial in Columbus, which bears his name.
Using one of Mike Cunningham’s Big Red rally towels, the family created a custom quilt square for one of Lifeline of Ohio’s memorial quilts. No one in the family had viewed the finished product in person until Tuesday, when Shasta Cunningham got to see and touch the token of remembrance.
“For them to do a ceremony down here that involves my family, it’s like a piece of Mike is here,” she said.
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